Utah's Hogle Zoo

Utah's Hogle Zoo
40°44′59″N 111°48′50″W / 40.7498°N 111.814°W / 40.7498; -111.814
Date opened	August 1, 1931; 93 years ago (1931-08-01)[1]
Location	Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Land area	42 acres (17 ha)[2]
No. of animals	800[2]
No. of species	249[3]
Annual visitors	1+ million[4]
Memberships	AZA,[5] WAZA[6]
Major exhibits	Asian Highlands Rocky Shores African Savanna Wild Utah
Website	www.hoglezoo.org

Located at the mouth of Salt Lake City's Emigration Canyon, Utah's Hogle Zoo is a 42-acre (17 ha) Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) accredited facility. Hogle (pronounced "ho-gul") Zoo is one of the largest zoos in the Intermountain West, and houses over 800 animals representing 250 species.

The zoo is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and is supported through Salt Lake County's Zoo Arts and Parks Tax and private donations raised by the Utah Zoological Society and the zoo's board of directors.

The zoo has been at its present location at the mouth of Emigration Canyon since 1931 on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. James A. Hogle. Its original location was in Salt Lake City's Liberty Park. In 1916, the zoo purchased Princess Alice, an elephant, from a traveling circus.^[7] She gave birth to Prince Utah, the first elephant born in Utah. He died after eleven months.

Hogle Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Only ten percent of the United States' zoos are accredited by the AZA. As part of the AZA, Hogle Zoo must abide by strict husbandry, education, and guest service requirements. The organization sets standards for exhibit designs that all new exhibits must adhere to. The association manages the majority of accredited zoo's collection through Taxon Advisory Groups. Animals are only moved to other AZA locations or through programs with European accredited facilities. Every four years, members of the AZA visit Utah's Hogle Zoo to ensure their expectations are being met. Hogle Zoo is currently accredited through September 2025.^[8]

Most of the animals at Hogle Zoo have a Species Survival Plan (SSP), which is run under the AZA and ensures genetic diversity among captive populations. The SSP pairs animals together for breeding based on their hereditary and gene pool. Most Species Survival Plans focus on threatened species or those at risk of extinction. Other animals in the zoo's collections are rescues from the wild (see Rocky Shores).

Utah's Hogle Zoo is also accredited by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). The organization serves a similar function as the AZA but on a global scale with a purpose of wildlife conservation and the best practices for animal welfare.^[9]

Completed in 1971, the Small Animal Building is the zoo's oldest exhibit. It is one of the few exhibits left in North American zoos that are dedicated to small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. Current examples include the National Zoo's Small Mammal House and San Diego Zoo's Reptile House. While many of these exhibits divide animals based on taxa, Hogle Zoo's exhibit follows the more modern 19th-century idea of displaying animals based on the species' biomes. The Small Animal Building includes four zones, each dedicated to a specific habitat. These include the Tropics Zone, Temperate Zone, Desert Zone, and Rainforest Atrium. Surrounding the Small Animal Building are outdoor habitats for reptiles during Utah's warmer months and an exhibit for red foxes, formerly known as the Wolf Run showcasing gray wolves and Arctic wolves until 2019. The east outdoor yard originally exhibited other species such as Brazilian tapirs, red kangaroos, black swans, and wallabies as well. Before Asian Highlands opened in 2006, the swans even had their own pond in the old Desert Tortoise yard, which in turn, originally provided suitable swimming space for black-footed penguins.

While the exhibit encompasses an innovative theme for exhibiting animals, the habitats themselves are out of date. The Small Animal Building is the oldest building on the zoo's campus. Despite being functional and up to code, the zoo is looking to renovate the facility in the zoo's master plan.

Temperate zones are found across the globe in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. These areas have a wider range of temperatures and often experience distinct seasons as compared to tropical zones. Most humans live in temperate zones resulting in large urban developments of these areas. Biomes found in temperate zones include temperate deciduous forest, temperate coniferous forest, temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, flooded grasslands and savannas, montane grasslands and shrublands, Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub, and mangroves.

The Temperate Zone in the Small Animal Building features animals from habitats. Some of the reptiles found in the exhibit include rhinoceros iguana, Puerto Rican boa, and flat-backed spider tortoise. The exhibit is also home to a pair of Siamese crocodiles. This critically endangered species is incredibly rare in captivity and can only be found at five other accredited facilities within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Before the crocodiles arrived, there were also Chinese alligators in the zoo's collection.

Mammals in the Temperate Zone include rock hyraxes, Linnaeus's two-toed sloth, striped skunk, and black-footed cats.

The Desert Zone, features animals found in deserts and xeric shrubland biomes. This is the largest terrestrial biome covering nineteen percent of the Earth's landmass. These habitats experience extreme temperate changes from high temperatures during the day to cold at night. The fauna that live in these regions have evolved adaptations that ensure their survival.

The Small Animal Building's Desert Zone is anchored by an open air aviary that resembles the Sonoran Desert which originally featured white-winged doves, northern cardinals, masked bobwhites, Gila woodpeckers, house finches, chuckwallas and desert tortoises. Mourning doves, cardinals and the tortoises still reside at the aviary today. The Desert Zone also features reptile species including Kenyan sand boa, pancake tortoise, and Gila monster. Amphibian species include Colorado River toad and Kaiser's mountain newt. Utah native species featured in the exhibit include Gila monster, turkey vulture, and common chuckwalla.

The mammals in the exhibit highlight specific adaptations for desert life. For example, sand cats have large ears which radiate heat from bodies, and the naked mole-rats, which made their debut in August 2024, are eusocial and spend most of their lives underground.

The tropics include biomes that span the Earth's equator. These areas receive the most sunlight and experience extreme rainfall. Habitats in this zone include tropical rainforests and monsoon forests. There is even a feature exhibit that once held species from Argentina including Patagonian maras, Patagonian conures, saffron finches, and rufous-collared sparrows. As part of adaptations to bird flu it also exhibited Cape porcupines and a pair of female Von der Decken's hornbills which had been in the Desert Zone when the turkey vultures were relocated there. When the porcupines died in early August 2024, the hornbills were moved back to their original aviary while the vultures went to the old armadillo tank and Kirby the armadillo moved to the sloth tank. As of late August 2024, all of the terrestrial aviary birds from the Rainforest Atrium are temporarily moved to the feature exhibit during the former's renovation, with the exception of a single superb starling likewise currently exhibited in the Desert Zone.

The Tropics Zone features mammal species from the Amazon River Basin including white-eared titi monkey, southern three-banded armadillo, nine-banded armadillo, and kinkajou. The exhibit also includes reptile species found on the islands of Oceania including green tree python, emerald tree monitor, and the prehensile-tailed skink. Before the titis arrived after the Primate Building had closed in 2014, there were also Guianan squirrel monkeys.

The Rainforest Atrium is a free-flight aviary featuring a variety of birds from around the world for three solid decades now. The exhibit features natural light cycles through a glass dome that covers the exhibit. Artificial rock work, a waterfall, and live plants create a naturalistic habitat. Free-flight bird species in the Rainforest Atrium include speckled mousebird, superb starling, spur-winged lapwing, roseate spoonbill, pied imperial pigeon, rose-ringed parakeet, helmeted guineafowl, red junglefowl, and the critically endangered Edward's pheasant. The Rainforest Atrium is also the winter home for the zoo's Aldabra tortoises, radiated tortoises, and leopard tortoise. Before the bird flu pandemic, the exhibit also featured yellow-headed amazons, orange-winged amazons, black-crowned night herons, scarlet ibises, lilac-breasted rollers, golden pheasants, snow geese, a radjah shelduck, a Canada goose and even a young male American wigeon. It even featured Pekin robins, scarlet macaws, and green iguanas during the early 2000's. In August 28, 2024, the rainforest atrium was renovated all month. by adding LED lights and wall plant decorations in order. Although visitors speculate that the renovation in question would mark the return of lemurs, gibbons, raccoons, flamingoes that year, officials maintained that the aviary birds were temporarily relocated to other exhibits at the zoo. In fact, the spoonbills and lapwings were temporarily relocated to the South Pathway aviaries next to the red-tailed hawks, the guineafowl were returned to the African Savanna habitat, and the remaining birds are in the other tropical feature exhibit, but the Atrium had since reopened in time on October 1, 2024, so that the wading birds had returned and the tortoises would be returned to their winter habitats.

The Great Apes exhibit opened in 1983. The exhibit, which cost $1,040,000, includes four indoor habitats for the apes during Utah's cold winter months as well as two outdoor yards. The exhibit currently features a breeding troop of western lowland gorillas and two groups of Bornean orangutans. The exhibit used to be home to a trio of chimpanzees.

Husani was brought to Hogle Zoo in 2010 to form a bachelor troop with Tino, another male who lost his longtime mate Muke the year prior to cancer.^[10] Husani was born at Bronx Zoo in 1991 and came to Utah from Birmingham Zoo. A year after Husani's arrival, the zoo also welcomed two females, JoRayK and her daughter Jabali from the Denver Zoo. They were brought to Hogle Zoo to start at family troop with Husani upon Tino's death. The zoo successfully housed the four gorillas in two troops until Tino's death in 2015.^[11] It was at that point when introductions began between Husani and the girls.

The Species Survival Plan closely monitors breeding among gorillas in accredited zoos. Breeding recommendations are not made until several factors are assessed by a specialist including exhibit factors, and troop behavior. Before a breeding recommendation was approved, JoRayK and Jabali were both put on birth control while they lived with Husani. After an assessment in 2019, Husani and Jabali were approved for a breeding recommendation. On July 6, 2020, Jabali gave birth to her daughter Georgia, the first birth for this pair and only the second gorilla born in the zoo's history. Pele was later paired with Husani in 2023, and gave birth to healthy male infant named Addo on May 30, 2024, the third gorilla born in the zoo's history.

In early 2022, JoRayK, the troop's matriarch died.^[12] Prior to her death, the SSP had already made a recommendation to transfer two more females to add to the zoo's troop. Later that summer, Mary and her daughter Pele moved to Utah from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay to join Husani, Jabali, and Georgia.^[13] Introductions began that summer and all five gorillas currently live together.

Adjacent to the gorillas, are habitats for Bornean orangutans. The zoo is home to a breeding pair male Mia and female Kawan as well as orphaned siblings Acara and Tuah. The exhibit also housed a Sumatran orangutan hybrid named Talukan. Acara was born on Mother's Day in 2005. Acara was larger than most orangutans at birth. Her mother, Eve, was in labor far longer than the four to five hours normal for an orangutan birth. Therefore, specialists from the University of Utah Hospital were brought in to perform a C-section. Acara was delivered after a two hour operation but was not breathing properly. She was taken to the University Hospital where she spent the night in an incubator. When Acara was taken back to the zoo and given back to her mom, Eve did not recognize her baby. Acara had to be hand-reared while introductions with her mother slowly took place.^[14] It took 20 staff members and 12 volunteers to raise Acara 24/7 for over nine months until she was put back with Eve full time.^[15]

Elija, affectionately known as Eli, came to Hogle Zoo in 2004 as a mate for Eve, a recommendation made by the Species Survival Plan. Eli was the father of Acara, but had no role in raising her as is typical with wild orangutans. Eli had become a social media star for accurately picking the winner of the Super Bowl for seven consecutive years. His accomplishments garnered him recognition in Sports Illustrated magazine and on MSNBC. In 2011, Eli was diagnosed with breast cancer, a condition rarely seen in apes. He was only the third orangutan to be diagnosed with the cancer and the first male. A surgeon from Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute performed one of two operations that removed the original mass. Despite veterinarian staff monitoring his condition closely, Eli ultimately lost his fight to breast cancer on September 6, 2014.^[16] Eve was pregnant when her mate died. She gave birth to Tuah, a male, on November 4, 2014. Again Eve had complications at birth and needed a C-section. Like his sister, Tuah needed to be hand-raised. While Eve responded well to the surgery initially, her behavior quickly changed. Three and a half weeks later Eve had died. A necropsy found that Eve's death was not related to the childbirth, however, no cause of death was found. The necropsy did find several medical problems that zoo staff were unaware of.^[17] While Tuah was being hand-raised, keepers began training his older sister Acara to be his surrogate mother. While other adult female orangutans had successfully been surrogates to orphaned babies, an older sibling had never been recorded as being one. Through positive reinforcement, keepers trained Acara to hold a baby using a stuffed animal. Acara was still young and full of energy so it was important she learned how to be gentle. Tuah was introduced to his big sister when he was three months old. In March 2015, the two started living together full time. Tuah made his public debut on April 11, 2015, to the 9,000 guests in attendance who wore "I met Tuah" pins.^[18]

Acara and Tuah have lived together at Hogle Zoo ever since. Acara has proven as a successful surrogate in this first ever scenario. In fall of 2016, the siblings were introduced to adult male Mia who came to Hogle Zoo from the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina as a potential future mate for Acara when she is ultimately separated from Tuah.^[19] On June 8, 2021, the zoo received Kawan, a female from the Henry Vilas Zoo in Wisconsin. Her move was recommended by the Species Survival Plan as a mate for Mia.^[20] Currently the zoo holds Mia and Kawan separate from Acara and Tuah.

The A. LaMar Farnsworth Primate Forest opened to the public in June 1997. The exhibit was named after the former zoo director A. LaMar Farnsworth, who served as director for 33 of his 45 years at the zoo. The exhibit, which cost $400,000 to construct, replaced the old concrete Monkey Island exhibit. Primate Forest offers lush, naturalistic landscapes for several species of primates including black howler monkey, eastern black-and-white colobus monkey, Colombian spider monkey and Nicaraguan spider monkey. Before the zoo's oldest building, the Auditorium, was demolished when construction began on African Savanna in 2012, the exhibit also housed golden lion tamarins and brown capuchins. The exhibits were specifically designed for each species. The large central exhibit for the colobus monkeys, which is 5,100 square feet and reaches a central height of 18 feet, offers trees where the primates can jump from. Each exhibit also has water features.

This habitat was originally designed as a new elephant habitat which would meet the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' new 2001 guidelines for elephant care. While many AZA zoos opted to relocate their elephants, Hogle Zoo already had plans for a new facility. In 2003, Salt Lake County voters approved Proposition #1, a bond that allotted Hogle Zoo $10.2 million to redo the zoo's elephant and feline exhibits. The following year, construction began on the $5.5 million Elephant Encounter, an exhibit that would increase the elephant's habitat by 400 percent.^[21] The exhibit opened in June 2005, completing the zoo's largest major animal exhibit in 25 years. The new home featured three female African bush elephants Hi-Dari, Christie, and Misha, as well as southern white rhinoceros half-siblings Princess and George. The exhibit received great praise even from the president of AZA at the time, Bill Foster, noting, "Hogle Zoo is leading. They are ahead of the curve. (Hogle) Zoo will be known globally for the advancement that it's making now."^[22]

Elephant Encounter featured two natural outdoor exhibits. The first habitat is a large Serengeti inspired yard with a swimming channel that is 10.5 feet deep and holds over 110,000 gallons of water. A second "working yard" allows guests to see how zookeepers train and care for the large mammals. This habitat also features overhead heaters and heated concrete floors to ensure the elephants are comfortable in winter months. Guests view this habitat from the African Lodge, a 2,600 square foot open-air African styled structure, constructed of wood and thatch materials. The Convergys Corporation pledged $200,000 to become the title sponsor of the structure. A kopje replica allows guests to come face-to-face with the zoo's rhinos in a third habitat. Starting in 2006, attempts were made by a team of German veterinary scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin to artificially inseminate female elephant Christie. The team used samples from a male elephant named Jackson at the Pittsburgh Zoo. On the third attempt, Christie became pregnant. After a 22-month-long gestation, Christie gave birth to a healthy 251-pound female calf on August 10, 2009. The calf was named Zuri meaning "beautiful" in the Swahili language.

In 2020, the animal activist group In Defense of Animals added Hogle Zoo onto their list of "10 Worst Zoos for Elephants".^[23] The group called upon Utah's harsh winter climate and the zoo's unnatural herd dynamics. With the deaths of Misha in 2008 and Hi-Dari in 2015, the zoo's herd is down to just Christie and her daughter Zuri. Current AZA regulations mandate that herd sizes should be no less than three. A Hogle Zoo spokesperson assured that the zoo is "working closely" with the AZA and Species Survival Plan "to increase the size of our herd, but that takes time. Our current master plan calls for a greater investment in elephants, with bigger barn, additional yards, and large walking paths. We are committed to the species."^[24]

In May 2023, Hogle Zoo officials announced a permanent end to their elephant program. After caring for elephants for over 100 years, the Hogle Zoo decided that the best plan for their current elephants, Christie and Zuri, would be to relocate them in the fall of 2023 to another accredited facility. The plan came after a comprehensive evaluation that was animal-driven giving the elephants the opportunity to live in a more behaviorally natural environment and have the chance to breed.

The zoo's chief executive officer Doug Lund was quoted as saying,

"Utah's Hogle Zoo is progressing through an exciting and transformational planning process to help ensure we meet the changing needs of our community and the complex needs of animals in the Zoo's care. We have talked to many professionals, consultants, community members, and our staff as we carefully assessed what is best for all our animals, including elephants Christie and Zuri. The ultimate choice to move Christie and Zuri is to provide them both the best chance to have a calf in the important social dynamic of a multigenerational herd."^[25] They currently reside at Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium in Missouri.^[26]

A bachelor herd of Hartmann's mountain zebras, a bachelor herd of Przewalski's horses, and most recently a pair of Bactrian camels named Terri and Gumby are housed with its two longtime residential southern white rhinos, Princess and George.^[27]

Just months after the opening of Elephant Encounter in 2005, construction began on Asian Highlands, the second project funded by the 2003 $10.2 million bond. The exhibit sought to convert the dated indoor Feline Complex's barred concrete cages into lush outdoor habitats for cats from the colder regions of central Asia. The zoo's existing female Amur tiger and snow leopard would enjoy the new habitats as well as new additions to the zoo including a male Amur leopard, a male Amur tiger, a male snow leopard, a trio of Siberian lynx brothers, and eventually Pallas cats. The exhibit opened on June 29, 2006.^[28]

Asian Highlands resembles a village in the Himalayas with five lush hillside exhibits of which the cats rotate between through a system of chutes. A large catwalk connects from the holding areas (the renovated existing Feline Complex) to the main habitat allowing the cats, usually reserved for tigers, to walk over guests. The central plaza, themed with prayer flags, includes Cat Wok Cafe and Grandma's House, an indoor interpretive area with a window into one of the habitats. Realistic rock work, plantings, and water features along with the geographic theming proved to be the exact upgrades the area needed.

In May 2015, four male Turkmenian markhor from Bronx Zoo took up residence in the rocky habitats above Asian Highlands that once held bighorn sheep and stone sheep, but later goats, sheep, llamas and wild turkeys adding to the exhibit's diversity of mountain dwelling Asian species. Two Chinese goral would later join them but have since left the zoo's collection.

The success of Hogle Zoo's Asian Highlands solidified the facility as a zoo on the come up. The theming of the exhibit influenced other exhibits including San Diego Zoo's Asian Leopards exhibit in 2015, Denver Zoo's the Edge in 2017, and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium's Asian Highlands in 2019.

Hogle Zoo's success in its participation of Species Survival Plans is most noted in its prolific breeding at Asian Highlands. The first babies of Asian Highlands were born in 2009. Three male Amur tiger cubs were born on June 2, 2009, to mother Basha and father Kazek.^[29] Bronevik, Kiril, and Vikenti, as they were named, have since moved to other accredited facilities to participate in the program themselves. Kiril traveled the farthest, moving to Japan as part of the Global Species Management Plans.

The zoo's former snow leopard mated pair, Nema and Himesh produced two offspring. Nema first gave birth to male cub Himal on May 7, 2009. She had another male cub on April 16, 2012. Chimeegui resided in Asian Highlands until his passing in 2024, but not before fulfilling the breeding recommendation to breed with current female Babs, where she subsequently gave birth to twins Pavlova and Bhutan on June 4, 2024. Two litters of Pallas cats have been born to parents Haru and Patenka in 2017 and 2018. The pair have produced a total of nine kittens.

Possibly Hogle Zoo's most significant contribution to the Species Survival Plan is their breeding success with Amur leopards. The species is commonly considered the most endangered big cat in the world. Around 300 individuals are left in their native habitat of Far East Russia and northeast China. Around 200 exist in zoos globally. To help boost the gene pool of the American captive population, female Zeya was brought to Hogle Zoo in 2016 from a facility in Kent, England, to breed with the zoo's resident male Dmitri. Since 2017, the Amur leopard pair have produced four litters and a total of seven cubs, most recently Jordan and Chelsea on December 25, 2021.

These SSP programs are important for creating a surplus for these species who are at the brink of extinction.

To the delight of Utah's public, red pandas returned to Hogle Zoo on May 2, 2018, with the opening of the Janet Quinney Lawson Red Panda Exhibit. The species was absent from the park when construction began on Rocky Shores in 2010. A new exhibit for the charismatic creatures was constructed at the entrance of Asian Highlands. This was the first of two exhibits constructed under the directorship of Steve Burns.

On June 23, 2023, after an approximate 132-day pregnancy, the zoo's female red panda Priya gave birth to a cub. Priya arrived at Hogle Zoo in June 2022 on a breeding recommendation. She was paired with the zoo's resident male Mow Mow. This was the first red panda birth in the zoo's history.^[30] In November 2024, the Himalayan red pandas, most recently breeding male Mow Mow, were gradually relocated to other zoos in favor of Chinese red pandas, starting with a 1-year-old male cub named William.

In 2007, Hogle Zoo officials announced plans to construct an Arctic themed exhibit as part of their newly unveiled master plan. The exhibit would replace the dated Bear Grotto from the 1950s and see the return of polar bears to Utah. The proposed exhibit planned to also see the return of snowy owls and seals as well as new species including Arctic fox. This plan eventually evolved into Rocky Shores, an exhibit showcasing the physical, cultural, and social landscape of the western shores of North America.

Funding for what would be the zoo's largest and most expensive exhibit was secured through a 2008 Salt Lake County bond of $33 million as well as a $3 million grant from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.^[31][32] Construction for Rocky Shores began in 2010, transforming a three-acre site at the northwest end of the zoo.^[33] After a two-year construction period, the $18 million Rocky Shores exhibit opened in a ribbon cutting ceremony with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker on June 1, 2012.^[34]

Rocky Shores features wildlife from Pacific Northwest stretching from Oregon to Alaska. From the R. Harold Burton Otter Falls habitat, guests can view bald eagles and North American river otters. The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Tidewater Cove provides underwater views of California sea lions, harbor seals, and polar bears. A salmon cannery inspired tower overlooks Bear Meadows which is home to the zoo's grizzly bears. Underneath Rocky Shores are dozens of pumps that help filter the exhibit's 350,000 gallons of water.^[35]

On May 1, 2012, Rizzo, a female polar bear from the Cincinnati Zoo, arrived in anticipation of the Rocky Shores' opening. Rizzo was the first polar bear to be seen in Utah since 2003. Rizzo delighted guests and was famous for swimming up to the glass and back diving into her habitat's pool. After a week of end-of-life care, zoo officials made the decision to euthanize Rizzo on April 9, 2017. The 19-year-old had been suffering from renal failure.^[36]

On September 16, 2017, the zoo received Nora, a female from the Oregon Zoo in need of relocation. Nora achieved global fame after her mother Aurora abandoned her days after her birth on November 6, 2015, at the Columbus Zoo. In an effort to keep Nora alive, she was hand raised by her keepers and quickly grew popularity on social media as people from around the world watched Nora grow up. Nora was sent to the Oregon Zoo in 2016 in hopes that she would learn natural bear behaviors from the zoo's older female Tasul.^[37] When Tasul died that November, Nora was again left alone, and the Oregon Zoo saw an opportunity to relocate Nora while they created an improved polar bear exhibit. Thus, Nora was sent to Hogle Zoo where she could be introduced to a female of a similar age.

Hope, born a month after Nora at the Toledo Zoo, arrived at Hogle Zoo on September 20, 2017. Introductions between the young bears began shortly after their arrival, and the two became fast friends. They would often be seen rambunctiously playing in their home at Rocky Shores. Their antics got Nora into a bit of trouble when she broke her front leg in February 2019. A team consisting of specialists from Texas A&M, North Carolina State University, and the University of Utah performed surgery on Nora on February 4, 2019. Nora made a full recovery with the help of heavy-duty orthopedic hardware in her leg.^[38] By 2021, it was time for the two girls to embark on a new chapter of their lives. On January 29, 2021, Hope moved to the Brookfield Zoo on a breeding recommendation with the zoo's resident male Hudson. Nora's new habitat at the Oregon Zoo, Polar Passage, was ready for her. She arrived back in Portland on March 9, 2021, where she currently resides with her friend Amelia Gray.

On February 26, 2021, Nikita, a fourteen-year-old male polar bear, took up residence at Hogle Zoo. Standing at 10+1⁄2 feet tall, Nikita was the first male polar bear to call Rocky Shores home. Arriving from the North Carolina Zoo, Nikita's move to Utah was coordinated by the Polar Bear Species Survival Plan.^[39] His mate, Neva, a five-year-old from the Maryland Zoo, arrived on November 16, 2021.^[40] The two have been introduced to each other, and zoo officials are hopeful the pair will produce offspring continuing Hogle Zoo's long history with polar bear breeding.

Many of the animals that live in Rocky Shores were rescued from the wild and have now found permanent homes in Utah. In July 2010, three grizzly bear cubs were left orphaned after their mother killed a man and injured two others outside of Yellowstone National Park and was euthanized. The cubs were too young to survive on their own in the wild, so it was determined that they would live out the rest of their lives in captivity. The cubs, two females named Dolly and Lou Lou and a male named Koda, were first sent to Zoo Montana, then New York's Buffalo Zoo, before finding a forever home at Rocky Shores in 2012.^[41] Most, if not all, grizzly bears in AZA accredited facilities are rescues. They are not bred to ensure space for more rescues. Koda, Dolly, and Lou Lou play an important role at Hogle Zoo educating guests on how to safely interact with wildlife to ensure an event like theirs doesn't happen.

One of Hogle Zoo's male California sea lions, Maverick, is also a rescue. He was found abandoned on a beach in California at less than a year old. Maverick was rehabilitated at the Fort MacArthur Marine Mammal Center in San Pedro, California. Because of his young age and his sustained injuries, Maverick was not eligible for release back into the wild. Hogle Zoo has provided a permanent home for Maverick since his arrival on May 5, 2012.

Female bald eagle Marie and male Nemo were both found injured in Alaska. They were taken in by the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka. Their injuries required slight amputations to their wings. Unable to fly, the pair had no chance of survival in the wild.^[42] Nemo arrived at Hogle Zoo in spring of 2016 where Marie would join him a couple of years later.

Rocky Shores has become a haven for rescued animals, giving them a place where they can lead natural lives and receive the specialized care they need. Since the exhibit's opening in 2012, Rocky Shores has been home to ten rescued animals.

In the fall of 2012, Hogle Zoo broke ground on an expansive 4.5 acre complex that would showcase animals from east Africa's grasslands. The project transformed the heart of the zoo which previously was home to the zoo's Discoveryland. The exhibit became the zoo's first mixed-species habitat showcasing several species together as they would be in the wild. Plans for the complex first started in 1999 under the directorship of Craig Dinsmore when he proposed an $80 million-plus renovation of the 42 acre zoo.^[43] Despite public support for an African Savanna habitat which would greatly increase the animal welfare of its animals, the zoo struggled to finance the exhibit. In 2007, Hogle Zoo lost a bid for $65 million in taxpayer money.^[44] The following year, the zoo was funded $33 million through a Salt Lake County general-obligation bond. This helped fund a new animal hospital (2009), the zoo's Rocky Shores exhibit (2012), and finally the $16 million African Savanna. The exhibit was completed in two phases beginning with Lion Hill which had a soft opening in May 2014. The exhibit officially debuted with the completion of the Grasslands on June 2, 2014.^[45] The exhibit is anchored by Twigga Terrace, a fifty-foot in diameter platform that looks out onto the habitat. Daily giraffe feeds are offered on the terrace during summer months where guests can come face-to-face with the tallest land animal. On June 6, 2019, the zoo debuted the James E. Hogle Jr. Meerkat Manor which added meerkats and crested porcupines to the African Savanna. All habitats in the African Savanna are outlined by amazing views of the Rocky Mountains that surround the landscape.

Before the opening of Lion Hill, African lions had been absent from Hogle Zoo for a decade. The zoo's former lions were housed in the Feline Building, a series of grottoes and barred cages reminiscent of typical 1800s zoo designs. However, when lions returned to Hogle Zoo, their habitat was state-of-the-art.

Lion Hill features two grottoes with freshwater and a grassy hill topped with a large rock for the lions to bask in. Large glass walls allow guests to come nose-to-nose with the large big cats. Heated rock work allows the lions to be comfortable outside during Utah's cold winters. The naturalistic exhibit overlooks the adjacent Grasslands habitat, giving the lions ample enrichment opportunities. The habitat also features a training wall, allowing guests to view daily training demonstrations between keepers and the lions. Lion Hill debuted with four residents: Vulcan and Baron, brothers from the Montgomery Zoo, and sisters Seyla and Nobu from the Woodland Park Zoo.^[46] The four lions were slowly introduced to form what is now Hogle Zoo's current pride. These lions were brought together upon a recommendation by the African Lion Species Survival Plan, a program that works to ensure genetic diversity among North America's lion population within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. In 2016, the pride became bigger when Nobu gave birth to males Brutus, Titus, and female Calliope on February 24. This litter was only the third time lion cubs had been born in the zoo's history. On May 16, 2016, the cubs made their public debut with their mother alongside their father Baron and fellow pride members Vulcan and Seyla.^[47] Brutus and Titus were moved to the Brookfield Zoo on March 17, 2020, as it is typical for male cubs to leave the pride after two years.

The Grasslands makes up the major footprint of the African Savanna consisting of three yards for hoof stock, and buildings for the animal's overnight housing. When the exhibit opened in 2014, a diversity of birds and ungulates from and eastern and southern Africa roamed together in the habitat. These species included Baringo giraffe, reticulated giraffe, Hartmann's mountain zebra, lowland nyala, common ostrich, Egyptian goose, and helmeted guineafowl.

Three two-year-old male lowland nyala arrived at Hogle Zoo in April 2014 prior to the exhibit's opening. Unfortunately, one of them died less than a month after its arrival on May 13, 2014, possibly due to stress. The other two struggled to acclimate to the exhibit. This may possibly be due to the skittish and timid nature of the species. Hoping that adding another male would help the others feel comfortable, another nyala arrived in September 2014. However, the nyala never acclimated and in September 2015 the three males were sent to other zoos. The zoo's two elderly Egyptian geese died not too long after the exhibit's opening. The zoo has never replaced these two species. Common warthogs were added to the Grasslands habitat with the addition of Meerkat Manor in 2019, and in 2024, a female warthog named Tikiti has arrived upon breeding recommendation with resident boar Swifty.

The zoo's giraffe herd was moved from their former giraffe yards at the west end of the zoo to the more spacious and naturalistic Grasslands habitat. In the winter, they enjoy a heated paddock near the train station. This allows guests to still view the African-dwelling species during the colder months. Since the opening of the African Savanna, three female giraffe calves have been born including most recently Reyna who was born on September 24, 2022. The zoo's current herd includes females Stephanie, Minka, Reyna, and males Ja-Raffe and Bakari, all of which are reticulated giraffes. Daphne and Pogo were Hogle Zoo's only Baringo giraffes, residing in the savanna with the other giraffes until their deaths in 2016 and 2020 respectively, but not until the latter successfully raised two calves, Willow and Georgetta, with Riley, who died about two years later. In October 10, 2024, zoo officials opted to introduce a second breeding male giraffe named Bakari to the herd.

Hogle Zoo has seen great success with its herd of Hartmann's mountain zebra. The species is found in the mountainous steppe region of southwestern Africa. The herd has acclimated well to Utah's climate and can often been seen running through the snow during the winter. Since the exhibit's opening, a total of seven calves have been born at the zoo through the Hartmann's Mountain Zebra Species Survival Plan. These births are significant as the species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN.

Night quarters for the Grassland's guinea fowl and warthogs reside underneath Twigga Terrace.

This exhibit was added to the west end of the Grasslands habitat in 2019. It just so happened that the additions of meerkats and warthogs to the savanna coincided with Disney's 2019 remake of The Lion King. The exhibit was sponsored by and named after James E. Hogle Jr., a member of the zoo's board of directors for over forty years and part of the family who donated the land of which the zoo still stands on. Sadly, Hogle Jr. died in October 2020. Meerkats were his favorite animals saying at the opening of the exhibit, "They're terrific. They are like little people, they have their own little colonies and families, they are just fun to be around."^[48]

Meerkat Manor provided new outdoor and indoor spaces equipped with termite mounds for the zoo's meerkats who moved from the Small Animal Building. They share their space with two crested porcupines.

In mid-2022, Hogle Zoo announced that a Utah-themed exhibit would be opened to the public where the bison used to be. As of May 9, 2024, the Aline W. Skaggs Wild Utah exhibit is now the newest major development since 2014's African Savanna. The exhibit has transformed three acres of the zoo's east side which was previously only visible by the train. Featured in the exhibit will be Utah native species with the intent to educate Utah's public and tourists about the state's iconic wildlife. Making a triumphant return to the zoo are species like mountain lion, desert bighorn sheep, and wild burro. The exhibit also provides new expansive habitats for the zoo's current native animals including a rescued bobcat named Loki, black-billed magpie Popcorn (until his sudden death in June due to stress from unsuccessful acclimation in his multispecies habitat), North American porcupine Barton, as well as desert tortoises, burrowing owls, and common chuckwallas. Other new animals that made their debut in the exhibit are gray foxes and a striped skunk that rotate between three exhibits with the bobcat and North American porcupine as well as an American badger in a prairie habitat next to the playground, building and bighorns. These exhibits are connected by a chute that goes over the guest pathway.

The guest pathway of the new exhibit includes a boardwalk around Emigration Creek, a historic Utah waterway which runs through the zoo's campus. A nature trail will lead down to the water every summer where guests will experience and learn about Utah's riparian habitats. Animals that can be viewed at the nature trails can include birds such as the local wild population of black-billed magpies, American robins, Steller's jays, mallards and great horned owls, as well as fox squirrels and rock squirrels. Other features of the exhibit include an education "campground" as well as a pollinator garden which will attract native pollinators and bees. Hands-on experiences include a burro brushing station, Education Maker Space, and an overlook tower.^[49]

The Wild Utah exhibit is expected to cost $22 million, triple the cost of the initial construction bid. $7.5 million came from zoo operations, $5 million from private donations, and $1.5 million from state funding.^[50]

Construction began in late 2022, and the exhibit opened on May 9, 2024.

The expanse of the new Wild Utah exhibit provides an opportunity for a brand-new facility for the zoo's animal ambassadors. Original plans for this project started a couple of years prior for a new animal ambassador building on the zoo's South Rim. However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted this plan. Now the building, which houses over 100 animals, was finalized for the Wild Utah exhibit. This new facility currently focuses on smaller Utah native species including brine shrimp, Triops, western fence lizard, wandering garter snake, northern flying squirrel, Phidippus audax, western screech owl, yellow-bellied marmots, common raven, Pituophis catenifer deserticola, Lampropeltis pyromelana, as well as the aforementioned burrowing owl, desert tortoise, and common chuckwalla. The first collared lizards in 20 years and first giant vinegaroons and giant desert hairy scorpions in 12 years also made their debuts there.

The facility also features the Utah Amphibian Conservation Room which will become the new home of the zoo's Boreal Toad Conservation Center. This project works to works to protect boreal toads, a subspecies of western toad, whose population has declined in the past 20 years due to habitat loss and fungal disease chytrid. The center is currently home to 20 toads that were collected from Utah's Paunsaugunt Plateau. Theses toads have been bred so that their disease-free offspring can be released back into the isolated population. Some of them can be viewed at their public flex habitats across from the ants and bees while a small multigenerational knot is rotated at the intended public, modernized terrarium across from the marmots, owl, and lizards.^[51]

The Education Animal Center will support Hogle Zoo's iSEE program which brings animal ambassadors to second grade children across Utah helping to educate 50,000 students yearly about their native Utah wildlife.

Hogle Zoo's train ride closed on September 26, 2022, in preparation for construction of a new and larger track which surrounds the Wild Utah exhibit, completed on May 9, 2024. From the train guests are able to see the pollinators, badger, bighorn sheep, mountain lion, and wild burro, as well as the zoo's African Savanna species. Incorporated into the track is the existing Moffat Tunnel, a guest favorite.

Before the attraction's closures from 2012 to 2014 for African Savanna and 2022 to 2024 for Wild Utah, respectively, the Zoofari Express was in service for about 53 years and provided rides to between 12 and 15 million guests, and is in service for years to come.^[52]

Other than supporting Hogle Zoo's iSEE program and Boreal Toad Conservation Center, the Wild Utah exhibit will allow the zoo to participate in several other conservation programs. The exhibit will provide space for orphaned mountain lions and bobcats who have been deemed un-releasable due to their young age at rescue. The exhibit will also allow the zoo to participate in the Desert Bighorn Sheep Species Survival Plan, a nationwide effort to increase the genetic diversity of the threatened species. The exhibit's wild burros will be a population of animals that were collected by the Utah Department of Natural Resources. These feral animals can cause problems in native ecosystems by spreading diseases and destroying native plants.

Oasis Plaza serves as a connecting hub in the center of the zoo. Four paths stemming from the plaza lead guests to all corners of the zoo. The zoo's Conservation Carousel beautifully decorates the plaza and is a popular attraction. The plaza's Oasis Cafe serves pizza, sandwiches, ice cream, and drinks.

The World of Wildlife Amphitheater is accessible from the plaza. The amphitheater which was once home to the popular World of Flight show,^[53] is now home to the zoo's Canine Champions for Conservation program.

Completed in 2016, Creekside offers fun learning opportunities for children. Programs with the zoos animal ambassadors occur at the Discovery Theater. These programs feature insects, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Creekside also features a playground and boardwalk that over looks Emigration Creek.^[54]

The zoo has had many famous animals in its collection since it opened in Liberty Park in 1911.

Princess Alice, a female Asian elephant, was the zoo's most famous and biggest attraction during the early 1900s. She came to the zoo, which at the time was located in Salt Lake City's Liberty Park, in 1916. Schoolchildren donated nickels and pennies to raise $3,250 to buy Princess Alice from a traveling circus called Sells-Floto Show Company. She was a big hit among Utahns. In 1917, a year after her arrival, the zoo built a building to house her in. Princess was the biggest draw for the small Salt Lake City zoo.

On April 29, 1918, Princess Alice gave birth to a male named Prince Utah. Utahans were thrilled with the news as he was the first elephant to be born in Utah. However, he died a year later on March 14, due to injuries he suffered after his mother rolled over him.

Utahans were upset after Princess Alice repeatedly broke free from her enclosure. This prompted the zoo to relocate. The Hogle family donated 42 acres of land at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in 1931. In July of that year, the zoo built its new elephant building with a safer and larger exhibit for Princess Alice. The building was dedicated to the children of Salt Lake City. The zoo opened later that year on August 1. On August 14, 1932, a relief carving of Princess Alice was unveiled. It was donated by J. R. Fox, a local Utah sculptor.

In 1947, Princess Alice went on a rampage throughout the zoo grounds. She ripped up concrete, fountains, and an elm tree. After a few hours, she calmly returned to her exhibit. In 1953, Princess Alice was euthanized after becoming ill at the approximate age of 69. Princess Alice is one of the most famous animals in the zoo's history. She played a vital role in Utah's history as well.

Shasta, who was born on May 6, 1948, was one of Hogle Zoo's most famous animals. She was the first liger born in America. Her mother was Daisey, a tiger, and her father was Huey, a lion. The two had been raised together, and that was why the zoo was able to breed them. Shasta weighed just over a pound at birth. However, her mother rejected her, and therefore she was hand raised. Shasta was a huge draw at the zoo. She was the reason for the zoo's success during the mid-1900s. Without her, Hogle Zoo might have gone out of business. Every year, the zoo held birthday parties for her. This drew in large crowds. After she died in 1972, she was sent to a taxidermist to be stuffed. Her body can now be seen at the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum at Brigham Young University. At 24 years, Shasta holds the world record for the longest-lived liger.^[55]

Gorgeous, a female western lowland gorilla, was one of the zoo's most famous animals. Gorgeous came to Hogle Zoo in 1985 from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado. She was caught in the wild in 1949 when she was only an infant. Gorgeous was very popular among guests, as she constantly interacted with them. However, Gorgeous lived alone because she did not get along with other gorillas. Therefore, she never had any offspring. In 1990, Gorgeous became world-famous as she was the first gorilla ever to receive cataract surgery. Dr. Allan Crandall, an ophthalmologist at the University of Utah Medical School, performed the surgery and implanted a lens into Gorgeous's eye. Gorgeous died in 1999 at the age of 50 and was the oldest living female gorilla at the time. She died of age-related problems. A bronze bust of the beloved animal was made in her honor attached with a plaque in both English and braille which can still be seen near the outdoor ape exhibits today.

Dari lived to be the oldest living African elephant in the world. She lived to the age of 55 and died due to age-related problems. Dari was loved by guests and staff alike. She was known for her caring attitude toward the other elephants in her herd.

Daphne was the oldest living giraffe in the world. She came to Hogle Zoo in 1985 from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. She had nine calves at the zoo. Daphne died at the age of 31, which is double the average lifespan for giraffes.^[56]

In 1997, Tino, a 450-pound male western lowland gorilla, attacked and bit Robert Pratt, the zoo's team leader for primates. Tino gained access to a room which Pratt was cleaning after a door was left open. Pratt was knocked down by the gorilla and suffered some bite wounds. Pratt returned to work soon after the incident.^[57]

In 1999, two zookeepers were attacked by three chimpanzees after a man failed to close the gate to their indoor enclosure. Two chimpanzees were shot and killed and a third was contained and was sent to a zoo in Kansas. Both zookeepers were severely injured. Chimpanzees were absent from the zoo's collection since.^[58]

In 2006, Maddi, an eight-year-old female grey wolf, leaped over an eight-foot fence and escaped from her enclosure. She was out of her enclosure for about an hour until zoo officials could secure her and bring her back into her enclosure. No one was hurt in the incident.^[59]

In 2011, four spider monkeys escaped from the outdoor enclosure. The four primates did not travel far and were coaxed back into their exhibit by zookeepers. No one was harmed in the situation.^[60]

In 2016, Zeya, a four-year-old Amur leopard, climbed through a six by six-inch opening at the top of her enclosure. The sixty-pound endangered cat rested on a beam just outside her enclosure and fell asleep. Zeya was tranquilized and put into a holding area in the zoo's hospital.^[61]

In 2021, an Indian peacock attacked four young guests throughout the zoo grounds. This resulted in a pushback leading zoo officials to reluctantly pause care for decades of housing free-roaming Indian peafowl after receiving complaints from the guests' parents about any disregard for safety and intervention. The remaining two peahens were briefly rotated between Primate Forest and South Pathway but were since relocated as well, resulting in the species' absence.

Conservation efforts at Hogle include a reduce, reuse, recycle program, water conservation, and earth-friendly biodegradable products. The zoo's efforts were recognized in 2005 by the Recycling Coalition of Utah, and it received the Thomas A. Martin Utah Recycler of the Year award for a non-profit business.^[62]

Following a June 2010 oil spill from an underground Chevron pipeline in Red Butte Creek, 150 to 200 birds, many of them Canada geese, came in contact with the oil and were taken to Hogle Zoo to be cleaned.^[63]

The Big Six Program is the Hogle Zoo's biggest conservation program. The program works with six organizations that are working with six endangered species. The big six animals that are a part of the program include the African lion, Bornean orangutan, polar bear, African elephant, radiated tortoise, and boreal toad.

In the 1960s concern grew for the dwindling population of America's symbol the bald eagle. The species was declared an endangered species in 1967 after DDT poisoning had decimated North America's population. Reintroduction efforts were needed to help bolster the remaining wild individuals. Sam and Betsy, Hogle Zoo's mated pair in the Woodland Edge exhibit had successfully produced fertile eggs in 1989, 1990, and 1991. All three of their chicks were determined good candidates for release as their genetics were not well represented in wild populations. The 1989 chick was released in Arkansas and the 1991 chick in Georgia. The chick from 1990 was unfortunately lost to predation from a red fox after its release.^[64] Without the banning of DDT in 1972 and reintroduction efforts made by organizations like Utah's Hogle Zoo, the bald eagle would have not recovered and been taken off the endangered species list in 2007.

The golden lion tamarin, a small New World monkey, has lost all but two to five percent of the species' original habitat in Brazil. The first population estimate in 1972, found between 400-500 golden lion tamarins left. From 1984 to 2001, an extensive effort to reintroduce the species to its native habitat took place involving 43 institutions in 8 countries.^[65] Utah's Hogle Zoo was involved in this effort. On April 29, 1993, Hogle Zoo sent Bagel, a male golden lion tamarin, to the Smithsonian's National Zoo's former Center for Biological Research for a quarantine period in preparation to be released into the wild. On February 4, 1994, Bagel was introduced into the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve in southeastern Brazil, one of three small areas left in the wild that are home to the critically endangered species.^[66]

On May 1, 1991, twin female black-and-white ruffed lemurs, a critically endangered species from Madagascar, were born in Hogle Zoo's former Primate Building. Born through a recommendation made by the Species Survival Plan, the twins were well-represented genetically in the North American population and therefore were considered good candidates for release into the wild. After seven years of being raised by their parents at Hogle Zoo, the two females began their journey to rewilding. On June 2, 1998, they arrived at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina where they joined four more lemurs that planned to be released to the wild. They spent around four months at the Duke Lemur Center where they had little contact with humans to help prepare for life in the wild. After completing the necessary training at the center, the twins, who had been named Dawn and Jupiter, were flown to the Betampona Reserve in the Atsinanana Region of Madagascar on October 27, 1998. After completing a standard quarantine, they were released alongside the four other lemurs into the natural reserve on November 25, 1998, helping to boost the critically endangered species' numbers.^[67]

The boreal toad is an endangered subspecies of western toad found in alpine wetlands of the western United States. The species has suffered a decline over the last twenty years due to habitat loss and a fatal fungal disease. Hogle Zoo opened their Boreal Toad Conservation Center in 2015. The center housed eggs from the subspecies that were collected from the wild. The plan was to raise the eggs to adulthood, breed them, then release their offspring into restored habitats. In August 2021, Hogle Zoo released 21 boreal toads onto the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah.^[68][69]

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The first Monkey Island was built in Hogle Zoo in 1931, when the zoo opened, where the Primate Forest stands today, initially consisting of alpine goats, boer goats, rhesus monkeys and snow monkeys. A second and third monkey was built in 1982 for the colobus and spider monkeys. The macaques were later replaced by langurs shortly before the islands were demolished for renovations towards Primate Forest in 1996.

During the early 1980s, Hogle Zoo renovated an old primate area near Peacock Pavilion to house various primates around the world consisting of lar gibbons, a black crested gibbon, a hoolock gibbon, black howler monkeys, hamadryas baboons, mandrills, vervet monkeys, Schmidt's guenons, northern owl monkeys, white-fronted brown lemurs, crowned lemurs, black-and-white ruffed lemurs, white-eared titis and ring-tailed lemurs over the years. This was the original Great Apes Building prior to 1983, where the first gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, baboons and mandrills resided, with more outside yards. All four lemur species were normally seen in the modified motorcycle cages with adequate climbing space every summer while the titis, mandrills, and gibbons had their own outdoor cages during the summer as well. There were also several indoor habitats with naturalistic concrete cliffsides, murals resembling their wild habitats, and spacious climbing areas where every primate resided every winter, as well as educational boards.

Most of the resident primates had breeding programs. Candy the white-handed gibbon initially had frequent company from gibbons of other species before eventually being paired with a male lar gibbon (another name for white-handed gibbon) named Riley where they had since mated and gave birth to a healthy male infant named Thai on August 4, 2012, a historical first successful gibbon birth at Hogle Zoo. It took until March 8, 2013, for both Riley and Candy to bond with their infant but Thai had since debuted as well and the Primate Building being open all the way until May 2014, when the exhibit deteriorated resulting in the mandrills, gibbons and lemurs moving to other zoos while the titis were relocated to the Small Animal Building and howlers Eli and Jackie were moved to Primate Forest where the Hanuman langurs, Francois langurs, colobus and spider monkeys also resided at the time to make way for the Creekside Playground with the Wyatt Fricks Discovery Theater located as of 2016.

The crowned and brown lemurs were on loan during the late 1990s and early 2000s and thus were relocated by 2008. A breeding troop of Bolivian gray titis arrived at Hogle Zoo in 2007 where the white-headed Lemurs were and had their first offspring in 2012. The Schmidt's guenons were amongst the first residents of the Primate Building, and were exhibited in the newer Great Ape building from 2000 until 2011, when mother-daughter gorilla pair Jabali and JoRayK arrived, where they were returned to their original habitat. In early 2014, when the Primate Building had deteriorated, desert tortoises and spider monkeys were temporarily on display there, where the lemurs and mandrills were located respectively while the guenons were temporarily on display over at Primate Forest with the howler monkeys and colobus. The Asian langurs were relocated to other zoos as a result, and before the Primate Building was finally demolished by mid-2015, the guenons were relocated to other zoos as well so that the spider monkeys could be returned to their normal habitats at Primate Forest.

While the titi and howler monkeys remain at Hogle Zoo, gibbons, guenons, lemurs and mandrills have been absent from the zoo's collection since 2014, but lemurs could return in the long-anticipated Diversity of Life building while gibbons, meanwhile, are most likely to return when the orangutan exhibit is eventually renovated and modernized with in the zoo's master plan. Guenons may likewise return once the Gorilla Habitat is likewise modernized. Mandrills and baboons, on the other hand, may just be supplementary attractions of a future traveling exhibit.

In 2012, Hogle Zoo's northwest end was transformed into Rocky Shores (see above). This three acre site was once home to exhibits like Bear Grotto, Penguin Cove, and the African Savannah, as well as habitats for Chacoan peccary, mountain lion, red panda, and llama.

In the late 1950s, the zoo constructed an exhibit for cougars. Large red cement rocks were made to mimic their natural habitat in southern Utah. The zoo's two cougars were orphaned brothers. Snow leopards were held in the exhibit while construction was being completed on Asian Highlands.

Bear Grotto opened in 1958. The exhibit, reminiscent of Carl Hagenbeck's designs of the late 1900s, was intended for the zoo's polar bears and Kodiak bears. The two habitats, each 40 by 60 feet, had 15 foot deep moats separating guests from the bears and extensive rockwork. Bear Grotto's first inhabitants were a male and female polar bear pair. The two were born in the wild in Canada's Northwest Territories. The polar bears moved to Hogle Zoo on March 28, 1957, in preparation for the exhibit's opening. The male and female cubs were named Klondike and Kate via a contest in which a seven year old boy won a trip to Disneyland with his parents.

Klondike died in 1978 and Kate died in 1985. The zoo was hopeful for cubs and brought in Bubba, a male from the Oregon Zoo in 1978 and Chinook in 1979 from the Memphis Zoo. The two proved to be a successful mated pair. Chinook welcomed her first cub, a female, on November 4, 1985. With Bubba, Chinook gave birth to a male in 1987, twins Aurora and Bubba in 1989, and a male Denali in 1993. Chinook's mate Bubba died on December 22, 1993, due to pancreatitis.

Due to Chinook's success as a mother, the zoo was looking to find a new mate for her. On June 23, 1995, the zoo welcomed Andy from the Buffalo Zoo where he had been born in 1989.^[70] The next year, Chinook gave birth to male twins Koluk and Kiska on November 19, 1996.^[71] Two years later she had another set of male twins named Alcor and Mizar.^[72] Chinook's last cub, a female named Anana, was born on December 12, 2000. It was decided to not allow Chinook to become pregnant again due to her age. Chinook was described as a protective defender and gentle, nurturing caregiver. The bear mother was euthanized on December 18, 2002, after keepers had been monitoring escalating health problems.^[73] Chinook was one of the most prolific polar bears in North American zoo history giving birth to a total of ten cubs. Currently she is survived by Denali who lives at the Sapparo Zoo in Japan and Kiska at the ABQ BioPark. However, many of her grandchildren still populate U.S. zoos.

In 2003, Andy died from an intestinal blockage after swallowing a glove that was thrown into his exhibit. The blockage caused a rupture in the intestinal wall, leading to leakage of intestinal contents and fatal blood poisoning.^[74] The zoo would not go on to bring polar bears back into their collection until the opening of Rocky Shores in 2012.

In July 2002, Dale, a female black bear, went on display in Bear Grotto. She was an orphan that was rescued from Minnesota. In 2003, Cubby, a male black bear, moved to Hogle Zoo from the Chahinkapa Zoo in North Dakota. Then in 2004, Tuff, a male black bear, came to live at Hogle Zoo. Tuff was born at a private breeder's farm in Missouri. He was then sold illegally. However, he was confiscated by officials and moved to a licensed facility. Tuff moved to Hogle Zoo shortly after. All of the black bears were moved to the Oregon Zoo because Hogle Zoo was going to start construction on their Rocky Shores exhibit.^[75]

In July 1962, construction of a mountain habitat was completed in between the Bear and Cougar Grottoes for aoudad, also known as Barbary sheep. The exhibit was originally home to five members of the sheep native to Northern Africa - one male and four females. They arrived via rail from Fresno, California, where they had been purchased for $50 each. The exhibit was home to a plethora of animals over the years before its demolition in 2010.

In 1974, Hogle Zoo received its first two stone sheep, a subspecies of Dall sheep found in Canada and popular in big game hunting. The pair, only a year old upon their arrival, were born at the Okanagan Game Farm where then zoo director LaMar Farnsworth had a connection. At the time of their display, Hogle Zoo was the only zoo in the United States to exhibit the subspecies. The herd, which began to grow in size through births and other acquisitions, took up residence in the Mountain Habitat. When the zoo's herd began to die off, the final member, an elderly male affectionately named "Stone Sheep", was moved to the desert bighorn sheep exhibit on South Rim. The Mountain Habitat then became a summer habitat for the zoo's Aldabra tortoises.

Chacoan peccaries were the last species to inhabit the exhibit before it was demolished for the construction of Rocky Shores in 2010. The four new peccaries made their debut in 2004 on the Fourth of July. The all male group consisted of Walker and Palito from the Saint Louis Zoo as well as Chili Pepper and Habanero from the Phoenix Zoo.^[76] The four males moved to the Woodland Edge exhibit in Discoveryland in 2010 before permanently leaving the zoo's collection in 2012 when construction began on the African Savanna.

While on a book tour for her text on the chimpanzees of Gombe, famed anthropologist Jane Goodall made a stop at Utah's Hogle Zoo to dedicate the zoo's new African Savanna exhibit on April 29, 1986. Joining her for the ribbon cutting ceremony was Utah Governor Norman H. Bangerter. In her remarks, Goodall commended the exhibit, noting her approval of the animals' ability to roam in an open space in social groupings.

The African Savanna covered one acre of the northwest section of the zoo, replacing chain-linked yards that once held many species including blackbuck, common eland, sitatunga, and wallaroo. The tiered exhibit featured three habitats for African ungulates and birds. Boma enclosures inspired fencing and a rondavel inspired indoor holding area added to the exhibit's authenticity. The $250,000 exhibit was funded through private donations and membership subscriptions. The African Savanna was demolished in 2010, when construction began on Rocky Shores at the west end of the zoo.

The African Savanna was split into three habitats. The Lower Savanna habitat was built as a new exhibit for the zoo's African antelope, including South Africa's springbok and Thomson's gazelle. New species were also added to the collection in the new African Savanna including addra gazelle and waterbuck. Cuvier's gazelle were added in 2002, and the critically endangered addax was added to the exhibit in 2003. The Lower Savanna habitat was visible via an outlook that extended from the path towards the old Giraffe Building as well as an elevated walkway that provided a birds-eye-view of the habitat. The Upper Savanna was a habitat for plains zebra originally, until 1998 when they were replaced with Grévy's zebra. A gully provided a natural barrier between the guests and the zebras. The pond of this habitat trickled down into a waterfall that extended into the Lower Savanna. A third habitat for smaller antelope was located adjacent to the Sea Lion Pool. This space was later used for red pandas in 2002.

Egyptian geese and a flock of helmeted guineafowl had free range between the Lower and Upper Savannah habitats.

On November 9, 1998, Taji and Monty, two male Grévy's zebras arrived at Hogle Zoo from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas. The two zebras occupied the Upper Savannah habitat. Their addition to the zoo's collection was significant, as it was the first time this endangered species had been exhibited in Utah.

On January 26, 2010, Taji was found dead in his barn. The following day, Monty was showing signs of distress. Later that day, it was determined that Monty needed to be humanely euthanized. For months, the zebras' deaths remained a mystery. Since it had snowed the week of their deaths, it was ruled out that any predators or humans had been involved. Both had experienced nosebleeds and blunt force trauma, possibly pointing to a fight between the two males.^[77] On March 17, 2010, the zoo announced that the zebras' necropsy had come back inconclusive.^[78]

To do this day, Taji and Monty's deaths remain one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the zoo's history.

After the zebras' death and before construction of Rocky Shores, three male ostriches took residence in the Upper Savannah habitat. They moved to the former cheetah habitat just south of the Giraffe Building alongside the Egyptian geese and an elderly springbok before moving to the new African Savanna in 2014.

Hogle Zoo had a long history of exhibiting and breeding African penguins. In 1983, the first penguins arrived at Hogle Zoo. The four penguins were exhibited in a habitat outside of the Small Animal Building. On September 16, 1987, the zoo's first penguin chicks hatched. The same pair would go on to have three more chicks over the next three years. These chicks, however, did not live long and by the end of 1993, only one male from the colony was left.

On March 24, 1993, six African penguins, one male and five females, arrived at the zoo from the Maryland Zoo joining the zoo's lone male. This new colony would go on to produce 11 chicks from 1994 to 2007.

In 1996 the Sea Lion Pool, located in the northwest end of the zoo, was renovated to house the growing penguin colony. The Sea Lion Pool, originally built in 1964, was dedicated to former zoo director Gerald deBary who had died earlier that year from a fatal bite by a puff adder. The exhibit which was once home to harbor seals and California sea lions (albeit the former was later relocated towards the east end of the zoo in an exhibit with a viewing tank), was closed due to costly renovations required to meet standards for marine mammals. The exhibit needed a new filtration system which would have cost $500,000. Instead the exhibit was renovated and turned into Penguin Cove which opened to the public on October 24, 1996. The renovations, which cost $40,000, included a rocky coastline surrounding the existing pool, a nesting beach, and an indoor habitat.^[79]

African penguins lived at Penguin Cove until the fall of 2010 when construction began on Rocky Shores. The remaining penguins were relocated to other accredited facilities including Dallas World Aquarium, Little Rock Zoo, and Toronto Zoo. The zoo has not had penguins in their collection since and has no plans for their return.

On December 6, 2002, Sarah and Ethel, two female red pandas made their debut in a new exhibit near Penguin Cove. The two had arrived the October prior from the Erie Zoo. The outdoor exhibit featured large trees for the red pandas to climb and an indoor habitat for them during Utah's hot summer months.^[80]

Red pandas were absent from the zoo after November 2010 when construction began on Rocky Shores. The species returned in 2018 with the opening of a new exhibit in Asian Highlands.

In 1969 the two-story Giraffe Building was constructed. The giraffe building was known as the up-and-down house and formerly housed antelopes and birds as well as giraffes, but it was not safe. In the early 1990s, two giraffes were euthanized after breaking legs on slippery floors. In 1994, the USDA cited the zoo because it failed to maintain the structure in good repair. The zoo was also cited in 1994 after failing to correct previously identified violations of peeling paint that could be ingested by the giraffes. In 2002, Sandile, a 7-year-old male reticulated giraffe, died after getting his neck stuck in a fence. In 2004, Ruth, a 26-year-old female reticulated giraffe, was euthanized after complications of a fractured leg. The zoo could not identify whether the broken leg was related to the building. Several giraffes died at Hogle Zoo, however, not all were building related. The zoo paid in all $50,000 to ensure that the Giraffe Building was USDA approved. After the African Savanna was opened in 2014, all of the zoo's giraffes were moved to a new state-of-art giraffe house. The old Giraffe Building was turned into the zoo's Maintenance Building, and it no longer houses animals.

Back in the 1970s, this exhibit was initially built as the Director's House just south of the old Giraffe Building (where the Maintenance Building is today) with a pronghorn exhibit, featuring a small herd of the native antelope. The pronghorns were later replaced with male cheetahs during the early 1990s. The cheetahs were popular fixtures at Hogle Zoo and even inspired the first 21st-century logo with a running cheetah, which would later be replaced by an elephant calf and later a tusked adult. Cheetahs were briefly relocated in 2005 when Abby, the zoo's only lion was temporarily relocated there until her death in 2006, in preparation for Asian Highlands. Cheetahs would later return and reside until 2010, when they were relocated in preparation for Rocky Shores to make room for the resident savanna herbivores including gazelles, Egyptian geese, and ostriches. In 2012, after two years of freely roaming the zoo grounds, a pied guineafowl named Chicken and his wild-type mate would later be moved in with the other savanna birds, soon after the elderly springbok passed and the Cuvier's gazelles were relocated. Chicken's mate would also pass on the following year, forcing Chicken to seek company from the geese and ostriches even after they eventually moved to the African Savanna in 2014, until other guineafowl made their debut in August 2014. The yard in the Director's House subsequently became a summer yard for the Maintenance Complex and no longer houses animals.

In 1968, 4,750 Salt Lake City voters approved a $1 million bond for a major development project at Hogle Zoo. Then zoo director LaMar Farnsworth said that this was, "the greatest thing that has happened to the zoo". The bond would be used to help fund a transformation of the undeveloped southwest portion of the zoo. The first phase of the project included a new Feline Building, which would replace dated exhibits for the zoo's cat collection in the old Lion House.

The $340,000 Feline Building opened to guests on April 4, 1970. The exhibit consisted of five large concrete cages for big cats including Amur tiger, Bengal tiger, African lion, African leopard, snow leopard, and jaguar over the years. Large garage doors were open during the summer to let fresh air into the exhibit. The exhibit also featured two outdoor habitats for the lions and tigers. A series of smaller cages were home to an impressive collection of small cats including jaguarundi, ocelot, margay, Geoffrey's cat, clouded leopard, Asian golden cat, caracal, serval, sand cat, and African wildcat over the years. The most famous of the residents inside the Feline Building, however, was Shasta the liger who was born at the zoo in 1948. Shasta resided in the Feline Building for two years until her death in 1972. The Feline Building also included restrooms, educational displays, and a maternity cage for a mother cat and her offspring.

In 1995, the Feline Building began its first major renovation since its opening. The renovations, totaling $1,400 when completed in 1996, included fabricated trees, rock work, recirculating water, as well as murals depicting the species' natural habitats.^[81]

The Feline Building closed in 2005, when construction started on the Asian Highlands. The skeleton of the Feline Building was retained, and now serves as the indoor holding areas for the Asian Highlands residents. The sand cats and wildcats were relocated in the Small Animal building and the ocelot was relocated towards Discoveryland in 2005 and remained there until 2012 shortly before construction began on African Savanna.

After the deaths of lion Flip in 2003 and elderly lioness Abby in December 2006, nearly six months after the opening of Asian Highlands, lions were not in the zoo's collection again until the first phase of African Savanna was completed on May 2, 2014.

In 1973, zoo officials announced that Salt Lake County had pledged $130,000 for a new exhibit that would display the first hippos seen in Utah. A year later, the Hippo Building, or "Hippodrome", opened in 1974. The exhibit, which was designed by architect firm McDermott and Associates, included a 90 by 64 foot indoor building as well as a 90 by 40 foot outdoor habitat for both hippopotamus and pygmy hippopotamus. The construction, which cost a total of $235,000, consisted of six pools for the hippos, the largest of which was 30,000 gallons. A bridge connecting the north side of the zoo to the Hippo Building provided improved circulation for zoo guests.

On March 28, 1974, the first residents of the exhibits, pygmy hippo pair Cleo and Brutus, arrived from West Africa. The pair produced three calves while living in the Hippo Building including a male in 1982, another male in 1983, and finally, a female in 1984. Brutus died at Hogle Zoo on April 10, 1997, while Cleo was transferred to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo on a breeding recommendation on October 27, 2001. Cleo died two days later.

On June 9, 1974, Tuff-Enuff, a male river hippo who was later named Moe, arrived from the Calgary Zoo. His mate Henrietta, arrived a day later from the Denver Zoo. The pair had two unsuccessful births in 1978 and 1979. Both calves died the day of their birth. Henrietta died on February 15, 1980, at the zoo. Moe was transferred to the Albuquerque Biological Park on April 11, 2005, where he still resides. Moe moved to join two females on a breeding recommendation.^[82] Since moving to the ABQ BioPark, Moe has fathered three healthy calves, most recently a female in 2021.^[83]

The Hippo Building also provided additional exhibit space for the zoo's African penguins as well as summer exhibits for the zoo's crocodiles and alligators. Also on display, in the exhibit was the zoo's famous "Museum of Human Stupidity" which featured objects from guests that had been found in animal exhibits throughout the zoo.

The Hippo Building and an old birds of prey exhibit featuring snowy owls, great horned owls and golden eagles were replaced by the Conservation Carousel and the Oasis restroom respectively which both opened in 2008 as part of the zoo's Oasis Plaza.

In 1981, for the Hogle Zoo's fiftieth anniversary, the Animal Giants Complex was built. The exhibit was built to house the zoo's elephants, African elephants named Hy-Dari and Twiggy, Indian elephants Kali, Toni, and Toka, and the zoo's white rhinos, Princess and George. Naturalistic outdoor enclosures were not only built for the zoo's pachyderms but for ostriches and tortoises too. The Animal Giants Complex was renovated for Elephant Encounter which opened in 2005.

Asian elephants had not been at Hogle Zoo since Kali's death in March 8, 2004, but are being considered for returning as implied by Utah's climate being said to be too harsh for African elephants by zoo officials, but they also say the topography would also need to be changed even further which would need to be discussed by the Master Plan Committees.

Central Zone was located in where the current Meerkat Manor and lion holding facility are today. Central Zone was once home to the zoo's original elephant house known as the Main Building which was dedicated on July 31, 1931. The Main Building was not only home to the zoo's elephants including the famous Princess Alice, but a majority of the zoo's collection. On August 14, 1932, a relief of Princess Alice was unveiled on the front of the building which was donated by local sculptor J.R. Fox. The Main Building underwent many renovations, starting in 1945, to accommodate better living conditions for animals. By the late 1970s, most animals in the Main Building had moved to new exhibits within the zoo. At this point, the east side of the Main Building was renovated into an auditorium. As part of the Primate Forest exhibit, the west side of the building was renovated for indoor exhibits for the zoo's tufted capuchins and golden lion tamarins in the late 1990s.

Central Zone was also home to the zoo's wild Bactrian camel herd. By the early 2000s, the zoo had a successful breeding herd with at least one calf born every year. During the summer of 2012, Gobi, an arthritic male, was euthanized due to his pain. He lived with another camel, named Mabel, who was then sent to the San Diego Zoo to be with other camels and so the zoo could start construction on the African Savanna exhibit. Camels were absent from zoo's collection until May 2024, when Bactrian camels Terri and Gumby arrived so that they could be introduced to Przewalski's horses Dimitri and Mikhail, who actually arrived in the old Elephant Encounters habitat back in November 2023, just two months after elephants Christie and Zuri were relocated to Kansas City Zoo.

The first phases of Discovery Land opened in 1988 featuring a newly planted forest, duck pond, and fort for children to play in. A couple months after its opening, the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation granted Hogle Zoo $100,000 as a matching grant. Combined with $700,000 from the Utah Legislature, the zoo had enough resources to fund new phases for the Discovery Land project. The new exhibits, which would transform the eastern end of the zoo, would display animals in naturalistic settings. North American animals were to be displayed in habitats representing woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. Under the direction of zoo director LaMar Farnsworth, the exhibits would cater to the zoo's younger demographic and include a new playground.^[84] In 1990, Woodland Edge, Knoll and Burrow, and the Marsh were added to Discovery Land with Desert Canyon being added in 1992.

Woodland Edge was made up of four habitats that housed a series of raptors and cats over the years. Species exhibited in Woodland Edge included Canada lynx, bobcat, bald eagle, rough-legged hawk, and ferruginous hawk.

In order for construction on Rocky Shores to begin, some of the animals from the construction zone had to be moved to Discoveryland. The four exhibits in Woodland Edge were renovated into two larger habitats to accommodate the zoo's two mountain lions Kota and Echo as well as the zoo's four Chacoan peccaries. New exhibits were built for the bald eagles and bobcat who were occupying Woodland Edge on the zoo's South Rim.

Knoll and Burrow was completed alongside Woodland Edge. The two exhibits cost $275,000. The innovative exhibit resembled a cave on the American prairie. On the outside, visitors could see exhibits for common North American including a colony of black-tailed prairie dogs, yellow-bellied marmot, North American porcupine, striped skunk and rabbit.

The exhibits were also used to house more rare species. Utah's Hogle Zoo was the only facility to exhibit the rare Utah prairie dogs. In 1900 it was estimated that there were 95,000 Utah prairie dogs. In 2004, the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources estimated that there were only 4,022 Utah prairie dogs left.^[85] Their decline has been largely impacted by habitat loss. Hogle Zoo was working with government agencies in helping to preserve the endangered species.

In the early 2000s, Hogle Zoo participated in the Species Survival Plan for black-footed ferrets. The species was thought to be extinct until the discovery of a small population in northeast Wyoming in 1981. Biologists captured the last 18 known wild ferrets in 1986 to start a breeding program. Hogle Zoo served as a holding facility for ferrets that were non-breeding animals and for those that could not be released into the wild. A total of 10 black-footed ferrets called Knoll and Burrow home. Inside the cave were exhibits for a cacomistle, southern flying squirrel, and a colony of over 200 Seba's short-tailed bats. Terrariums in the cave held blind cave fish and giant hairy scorpion. Inside the cave, guests could look through plexiglass to get up-close views of the outside exhibits.

The Marsh Aviary, was phase four of Discovery Land. Guests could walk out onto a boardwalk over the pond. In the pond, the zoo kept a group of injured American white pelicans, a common gallinule, American wigeons, pintails, mandarin ducks, a great blue heron, a breeding pair of mute swans, a greylag goose, and a snow goose. Also in the pond were other North American duck species. Visitors could pay twenty-five cents to feed the birds.

Desert Canyon was the fifth and final phase of Discovery Land. Large red stone rocks were constructed of fabricated rock, lath and rebar over three concrete and block buildings. A concrete gun was used to build a reddish-color cement-like compound, which was then hand-troweled for the rock-like appearance.^[86] The construction of Desert Canyon cost $600,000.

As visitors entered the exhibit they followed a somewhat narrow path to two exhibits for small carnivores. Overtime many species were housed in these habitats including kit fox, ocelot, and white-nosed coati. Two Island foxes were also displayed here in the early 2000s which at the time were only exhibited at Hogle Zoo and the Santa Barbara Zoo. Next visitors saw a collection of smaller exhibits for animals including Merriam's kangaroo rat and an aquarium which housed native Utah fish species June sucker and Bonneville cutthroat trout (although by 2012, shortly before demolition for African Savanna, the native Utah Lake fish were since replaced with bluegills and black crappies). Desert Canyon featured a recreated Anasazi cliff dwelling which provided views to a small mesa for angora goat and Navajo sheep.

Other small glass exhibits featured an array of species over the exhibit's timeline including common collared lizard, Harris's antelope squirrel, white-tailed antelope squirrel, rock squirrel, nine-banded armadillo, southern three-banded armadillo, screech owl, long-eared owl, American kestrel, ring-necked pheasant, Bullock's oriole, and raven.

Desert Canyon also featured a building for the education department's animal ambassadors and a small amphitheater where animal programs were held.

Discovery Land closed in 2012 in anticipation of the new African Savanna. Before construction started, several of Discoveryland's animals were relocated to other areas of the park. An old angora goat and the Navajo sheep moved into the old desert bighorn sheep exhibit on South Rim. Tukut the bobcat and bald eagles Sam and Betsy moved to new exhibits on South Rim as well. The cacomistle and Seba's short-tailed bat's relocated to the Small Animal Building. Hogle Zoo would also pause continued care for the cougars, wolf spiders and gray foxes until 2024, when Discovery Land reopened under the new name Wild Utah as the definitive, public train-loop exhibit, complete with a new Woodland Edge where the plains bison habitat was.

Tropical Gardens was a 3,300 square-foot temperature controlled greenhouse built in 1995 that housed several temporary exhibits at Hogle Zoo. The 40-by-80-foot glass enclosure was manufactured in New York. The exhibit replaced exhibits for otters and pheasants and ultimately cost $430,000. Tropical Gardens' first exhibit was Butterfly World which opened on June 10, 1995. The exhibit featured hundreds of butterflies representing 21 species.^[87][88]

In 1999, Jack, the Komodo dragon debuted in Tropical Gardens. On loan from Zoo Miami, Jack was over seven feet long and 150 pounds.^[89]

On June 19, 2000, Baringa and her son Bundaleer, two koalas on loan from the San Diego Zoo made their debut in a new exhibit Wonders from Down Under. The two koalas traveled from the Salt Lake City airport to the zoo in a limousine. The celebrity status didn't stop there for the koalas. Eucalyptus was flown in from Florida twice weekly to feed the animals while they were on exhibit through October 8, 2000. Wonders from Down Under also featured laughing kookaburras and stick insects.^[90]

Butterflies returned to Tropical Gardens in 2001.^[91]

Possibly the most popular exhibit in Tropical Gardens was Outback Adventure which ran in the summer months for three years from 2002 through 2004. The exhibit featured around 350 free-flight birds from Oceania including budgerigar, cockatiel, eastern rosella, Papuan eclectus, salmon-crested cockatoo, and zebra finch. The exhibit, which debuted on May 4, 2002, had a $1 entry fee. For an extra $1, guests could purchase a stick with food for the birds to come and feed from. Outback Adventure also featured blue-tongued skink, bearded dragon, and White's tree frog.

Butterflies returned in 2005 and 2006.

On May 5, 2007, the zoo debuted Ghost of the Bayou, an exhibit featuring Antoine, an all white alligator. The 9-foot and 220-pond alligator got his coloring from a genetic mutation called leucism. Antoine was one of 18 white alligators found in the wild in a nest outside of New Orleans in 1987. Because of their unique pigmentation, their chances of survival were low and were therefore taken to the Audubon Zoo where Antoine was on loan from. The rest of the exhibit featured other animals from America's wetlands including baby American alligators, cottonmouth, spotted salamander, and American bullfrog.^[92] The exhibit's popularity allowed it to return with Antoine in 2008.

2009 saw the opening of Madagascar! and the first time fossas, Madagascar's largest carnivore were seen in Utah. The exhibit featured two predators as well as lesser hedgehog tenrec, Madagascar tree boa, Madagascar hissing cockroach, and radiated tortoise.

The final exhibit to debut in Tropical Gardens was 2010s Nature's Nightmares featuring "scary" animals with important roles in their ecosystems. The stars of the exhibit were two king vultures. A colony of fifty free-flying straw-colored fruit bats from the Milwaukee County Zoo roosted above guests' heads. Terrariums held emperor scorpion Vietnamese centipede, dung beetle, Goliath bird-eating spider, leeches, and red-bellied piranha. Other species within the exhibit were Norway rat and striped skunk. The exhibit returned in 2011 when it was renamed Living Links.^[93]

From 1995 to 2011, Tropical Gardens was home to a number of some of the zoo's most popular exhibits and animals. The exhibit permanently closed in September 2011 when construction began on the Beastro, the zoo's main restaurant. Many of the temporary exhibits' supplementary animals stayed in the zoo's collection and were housed in the Small Animal Building including the colony of straw-colored fruit bats.

During the summer, a number of special temporary exhibitions have been hosted at Hogle Zoo. These attractions ranged from animatronic dinosaurs to conservation themed art.

Hogle Zoo has featured several animated dinosaur exhibitions. The two most recent being Zoorasic Park (2011) and Zoorasic Park 2 (2015).

In 2013, Creatures of Habitat featured 32 Lego sculptures by Sean Kenny depicting life-size animal scenes including Humboldt penguins, polar bears, and golden lion tamarins.^[94]

Fourteen animatronics depicting various supersized bug species were scattered around zoo grounds in Bugszilla during 2017. The exhibit worked to help destigmatize the creepy-crawlies and helped educate guests on the important roles insects play in ecosystems.^[95]

Angela Haseltine Pozzi's Washed Ashore came to Hogle Zoo when fifteen of her sea-life sculptures were displayed in 2019. Each sculpture is made of recycled plastic that was collected from United States shorelines. The artwork educates viewers on the importance of recycling and reducing plastic waste as well as the effect pollution has on marine life.^[96]

Every year during late winter, the zoo hosts the World of the Wild Art Show. This indoor exhibition shows animal-themed art by various artists.

In 1999, the zoo completed the planning of its first major Master Plan. The plan laid out the blueprints for the Main Entrance (1999), the Wildlife Theater (2004), Elephant Encounter (2005), Asian Highlands (2006), Oasis Plaza (2008), the Animal Hospital (2009), Rocky Shores (2012), the African Savanna (2014), and Creekside Playground (2016). These developments all occurred under zoo director Craig Dinsmore.^[97] In 2014, Hogle Zoo hired landscape and architecture firm CLR Design to develop upon the 1999 plan that would see the zoo through 2030. Dinsmore retired in 2017 after serving 20 years as director and CEO of Hogle Zoo.^[98] He left leaving behind him an amazing legacy by creating modern exhibits and improving animal welfare. Since 2017, the new zoo directors have steered away from the 2014 Master Plan. Steve Burns' (director 2017-2020) Red Panda Exhibit (2018) and Meerkat Manor (2019) were not a part of the 2014 Master Plan. The current zoo director's, Doug Lund, new Wild Utah exhibit, which is now completed in 2024, is also not a part of the 2014 plan.

In May 2023, it was announced that the zoo is currently developing a new master plan, one that focuses on the animal welfare of gorillas, polar bears, rhinos, and orangutans. While this plan is now outdated, below follows a detailed account of the 2014 Master Plan.^[99]

The Great Ape and Primate Forest expansion will be the biggest project Hogle Zoo still has to undertake. The project will modernize the exhibit space for the zoo's gorillas, orangutans, and smaller primates. As part of the plan, the zoo hopes to exhibit different species together. For example, the zoo wishes to introduce its colobus monkeys in with the gorilla troop and potentially Congo peafowl, guenons, and red river hogs too. Another plan combines the zoo's spider and howler monkeys in with other South American species like the returning tapirs, anteaters and greater rhea as well as capybaras. This idea of mixed-species exhibits will not only stimulate the animals, but it will give guests an idea of how these animals live in the wild. Primates and apes travel long distances in the wild. Therefore, another plan for the expansion is to have overhead chutes connect several exhibits to allow the animals to move to different exhibit spaces. This feature would give the animals choice as they would have in the wild. The Great Ape and Primate Forest expansion will also allow better viewing opportunities for the guests.

While this is currently the least changed part of the new Hogle Zoo Master Plan, it is likely be expanded to the east end of the South pathway.

The Diversity of Life and Education building will be the zoo's new Small Animal Building. Located where the old Beastro and RendeZoo building are today, the new exhibit will feature the animals from the Small Animal Building as well as new small animals. The current Small Animal Building was built in the 1970s and is dated. The new building will have better space for both animals and guests.

The building will be three stories high. The first two stories will be dedicated to animals, such as hyraxes, sand cats, porcupines, armadillos, axolotls, naked mole-rats, geckos, sloths, treefrogs, radiated tortoises, Aldabra tortoises, bats, crocodiles, iguanas, snakes, insects, tarantulas, scorpions, and titi monkeys. The third floor will be used by the education staff. On the south side of the building, there will be a three-story rain forest exhibit featuring free-ranging primates as well as free-ranging birds such as rhinoceros hornbills, macaws, pied imperial pigeons, green peafowl, and perhaps kiwis too. Other possible exhibits may include a Madagascar exhibit marking the return of lemurs such as ring-tailed lemurs and Coquerel's sifakas to share space with the tortoises as well as permanent space for fossas. Funding for the exhibit has already begun and the project was originally scheduled to be done by 2022 but has yet to begin construction.

After the current Small Animal Building is demolished, the zoo will build a new building that will feature traveling exhibits. When the new Beastro restaurant was built in 2012, the Tropical Gardens exhibit, which featured the zoo's traveling exhibits, had to be destroyed in 2011. The new building will be bigger than Tropical Gardens. This will allow for larger traveling exhibits with outdoor yards for species such as kangaroos, wombats, Galapagos tortoises and Komodo dragons, as well as adequate indoor space for a variety of species such as budgerigars, lorikeets, butterflies, koalas, binturongs, mandrills, baboons, and even opossums. Lemurs and fossas may also wind up as supplementary animals at first as well as raccoons in case the Diversity of Life building winds up with additional popular fixtures like Wild Utah.

The Asian Highlands expansion will include minor renovations to the current Asian Highlands exhibit as well as construction on more exhibits above Asian Highlands. Better exhibits for the zoo's Asian goats such as markhors as well as exhibits for other Asian species such as Siberian lynx and red panda will be a part of the construction. The construction will also include improvements to the South Pathway.

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